End of the road for LIV golf?

May 18, 2026

Key points from this story:

• LIV Golf on brink of collapse
• Funding from Saudi Arabia's PIF dwindling
• Brooks Koepka leaves LIV for PGA Tour
• LIV tournaments failed to attract viewers
• PGA Tour discussing paths for LIV players
• LIV's team golf concept not popular

The four-year effort to create a rival golf league to the PGA Tour appears to be on its deathbed. The Saudi Arabia-based LIV golf league, bankrolled by the country's trillion-dollar Public Investment Fund, will be kept alive until the end of the 2026 season and after that, all bets are off.

Formed in 2022, LIV golf turned the professional game on its ear, enticing some of the world's best players to leave the PGA Tour in exchange for multi millions of dollars.

The LIV Tour featured tournaments lasting 54 holes and its players formed four-man teams that competed for additional prize money in addition to individual play. Efforts to attract television viewers, however, failed miserably and most golf fans basically tuned out the LIV experiment.

After four years and a reported $5 billion bleed, operators of the Saudis' PIF Fund are apparently saying 'no more,' citing changing economic and investment goals. One of its tournaments, scheduled for June in Louisiana, is being postponed and rescheduled for the fall. That announcement was the first real sign of a major crack in the LIV setup, but indications of crumbling have been seen for months.

Exhibit A was Brooks Koepka, leaving LIV with one year to go on his contract and asking for reinstatement on the PGA Tour. A special arrangement was made in January to allow any former major champion on the LIV circuit since 2022 to seek a return to the PGA Tour, with some financial penalties, but Koepka was the only one to jump. Others eligible in that 'major champion' category were Jon Rahm, Cam Smith and Bryson DeChambeau, but they all declined. Patrick Reed, meanwhile, is returning to the PGA Tour via a different path; he has been competing on the DP World Tour and its bylaws say the top 10 at the end of each season earn PGA Tour cards. Reed has won twice in Europe this season and will easily snag one of those 10 cards for the 2027 season.

LIV's 54-hole tournaments and team golf concept didn't resonate with golf fans. When the likes of Rahm, Johnson and DeChambeau fled to LIV and banked huge cheques from the Saudis (as much as a reported $400 million for Rahm), it was almost as if those stars had retired to a life of exhibition golf in a vacuum. Their positions in the Official World Golf Ranking slid as OWGR points were not available for LIV competition (negotiations have since changed that) and their world rankings were often used as qualifiers for major events.

LIV officials say independent financing is being sought and hopefully be in place in time for the 2027 season. PGA Tour officials, meanwhile, are having discussions about setting up paths for LIV players' return to the world's No. 1 tour.

How this PGA Tour-LIV Golf kerfuffle ends up, it appears that golf fans will once again have ALL of the world's best players regularly competing against each other. It's almost certain LIV will die and become a memory, soon to be forgotten.

Sports Comments

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• Sean McIndoe of The Athletic, referencing Columbus coach Rick Bowness’s rant after the Jackets’ final NHL game this season: “A dose of reality is a good thing, especially when it’s delivered by a cranky grandpa who’s had enough of you punk kids.”
• Comedy guy Steve Burgess of Vancouver, on the NHL draft lottery: “The Canucks could pick no lower than No. 3. Aaaand No. 3 it is. Why did they bother with the draw? Just have a machine full of ping pong balls that all say ‘Screw you, Vancouver.’”
• Globe and Mail columnist Cathal Kelly: “The Leafs just got creative by tapping John Chayka, a guy who couldn’t get a job in hockey, to run their hockey ops.”
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• Golfer Michelle Wie, after shooting 82 in her first competitive round in three years: "I was like, wow, the hole all of a sudden looks so small. Got to a two-footer and I'm like, I'm not going to hit the hole. No way.”
• Headline at the onion.com: “Carlos Alcaraz Withdraws From French Open Over Career-Threatening Haircut.”
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• Cathal Kelly again, on the Leafs’ Auston Matthews: “Most nights, he looks like he does this job as part of his bail conditions.”
• Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun: “I told someone where Gavin McKenna was from: They thought I said UConn.”